Fox, I see you only recently joined. Why is "tedious" problematic?Inge was killed many years ago - but the killer will be found. Please bear with those intent on finding the killer.If you do not have anything to contribute, I appreciate your patience.

Last edited by African on Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

Please go easy on Fox. I don't think he understands the undercurrents of your posts, or pottoman's, or mine. If Fox finds this discussion tedious, perhaps he would be better advised to simply skip it. Even the slightest chance that you or pottoman could expose a truth or trigger a response that would implicate a murderer is certainly worth the tedium.

Best,Pat

The views presented in this post are those of the author only. They do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or any of its components.

MORE than 27000 police officers on active duty have failed the firearms proficiency test - making them a danger to their colleagues and the public.

“This fact is a very high risk for the lives of colleagues, as well as members of the community ... and could lead to an increase in police killings”.

This is according to a draft performance audit report by the SAPS internal audit unit dated December 14 2011.The audit was conducted to assess the quality of training provided to police officers.

Yet, despite this, many still carry official service weapons.

According to the report, 27329 (or 17%) of the 157704 police officers who underwent training to comply with the regulations of the Firearms Control Act, which took effect in 2004, failed firearms proficiency tests.

A further 55429 members still have to be trained in accordance with the new legislation.

There are 213133 operational members, including 59955 active reservists, in the SAPS.

The firearms test which the policemen failed is similar to that which ordinary citizens have to pass in order to obtain a firearm licence.

Acting national police chief Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi appeared taken aback by the report yesterday, saying it would be unfair to comment on something he had not seen or heard of. He said detailed questions should be submitted to his communications department.

But the department has refused to provide detailed comment to questions submitted two weeks ago.

"If there's that number not competent, then, in terms of the law, they can't carry weapons," Mkhwanazi said.

Mkhwanazi admitted that not all police officers had undergone firearms training in compliance with the new act.

Asked what action would be taken against those who were carrying firearms although they were declared not competent, he said: "I would charge the commander. I would want to know from the provincial commissioner why he [the member] was allowed to carry a firearm."

Findings in the 40-page report, based on an audit on training in the police force, included:

A total of 7578 of the 16123 operational members in the Eastern Cape have not yet been trained; and 448 of the 1019 police members who failed firearms proficiency tests in the Western Cape were declared "untrainable" because of medical reasons or as a result of being declared unfit to possess a firearm.

The definition "untrainable", a policeman told the Sunday Times, is also used for those who cannot even pick up a rifle or continually fail to hit a target during shooting practice.

The Safety and Security Sector Education and Training Authority (SASSETA) - the body tasked with issuing "learner achievement" certificates to members of the SAPS who pass proficiency tests - confirmed that only 3570 certificates were awarded since 2010.

The revelations come in the wake of the fatal shooting of Soweto teenager Thato Mokoka on February 14, allegedly by student constable Sipho Mbatha.It has since come to light that Mbatha had been declared unstable and unfit to carry a firearm.

Mbatha is in police custody and will appear in court again on March 16. He allegedly had his R5 rifle in full automatic mode when shots were discharged, hitting Mokoka three times.

On Monday, a policeman based at Gauteng's Kempton Park Police Station was shot in the upper body after a gun went off while he was booking it out.

The audit report stated that one of the effects of having members who were "not yet competent" in handling weapons was that "they are placed on operational duties with a firearm they cannot use properly".

"This fact is a very high risk for the lives of fellow colleagues, as well as members of the community." It added: "The fact that members cannot utilise their firearms with confidence could lead to an increase in police killings."

The majority of those who failed the tests, according to the report, were operational members "who were supposed to carry their official firearms on a daily basis".

The audit team said despite "ample legislation" indicating what was expected of the police's top management, "there are still no proper policies and procedures in place regarding the competency issue of Police Act members [those on operational duty]."

Instructors at tactical training academies told the team that some police members kept on failing to meet basic requirements, despite receiving continuous firearm training.

The report also found that suspended police commissioner Bheki Cele's controversial decision to reinstate the contracts of 229 police trainees who failed their exams three times last year was "in direct contradiction" of the memorandum of agreement signed between SAPS and trainees.

Cele had instructed his top brass from the 10 basic training academies to give the recruits, who were among a batch of 5413, another shot at the exams.

Another finding was that a four-week SWAT programme, now called a street survival course, was slashed to two weeks.

Nine modules, including roadblock etiquette, counter-sniper techniques, and ambush and counter-ambush techniques, were left out of the new programme.

Cindy Chikunga, chairman of parliament's police portfolio committee, said of the findings: "If such a person is not competent, then it's a problem, because they face criminals who are well trained in using firearms."

Describing the situation as "outrageous", the Democratic Alliance's shadow police minister, Dianne Kohler Barnard, said that SAPS top management were breaking the law if they allowed members who did not have firearms proficiency certificates to carry guns.

"We have SAPS members flouting the laws that we, as citizens, have to abide by," she said.Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa's spokesman, Zweli Mnisi, would not comment, as he said the issues were of an "operational nature".

If this latest Sunday Times report is true, small wonder that morale is at an all-time low, especially when you consider that only last year the Chief of Police, Bheki Cele, was suspended amid allegations of sleaze concerning the unauthorized spend of over $200 million of taxpayer’s money on dodgy building leases. And let us never forget that his predecessor, Jackie Selebi, who famously admitted under oath his friendship with known mobsters, is currently serving 15 years jail time for corruption. What chance, then, of ever bringing Inge’s killer to justice when you consider that the average take-home pay of a detective with 20 years on the job and the rank of Captain is less than $1000 a month ?(And just to put that in perspective, a US gallon of gasoline costs around $5.50 in South Africa these days.)

Hi TazmanI think you would find they don't have donuts there. My Sth African Workmate tells me they probably have not past the Aids test nor the criminal history test, even the local security companys there would not want to employ the special constables. The sudent constables are not supose to have firearms at all and have not done the most basic of training. Actually the Commisioner of police has probably got a criminal record, That may not be true but you do not have to go far into top government to find this is the case.

We are not a racist country here in NZ and I am not racist, these are facts that are facts.Neville

That would explain why they couldn't process a crime scene correctly, couldn't find but a dozen or so fingerprints in an entire apartment and everything in it, couldn't investigate the crime, and had to fabricate evidence to frame an innocent man in order to solve the murder.

Maybe a shipment of donuts would be a good thing. It would be a little harder to fabricate evidence with donuts in their mouths and sugar glaze on their fingers.

"Man was born free, but he is everywhere in chains." -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Hi TazmanWhere on earth do you get the name from?I have to suggest that in fact the answer to this whole issue is sending the donuts to Auckland NZ Addressed to me, I just know the Sth Africans would also agree that it is that I need them more, I mean if they have never had one they will not know what they are missing!Sorry I seem to be getting off the topic and I am not inferring in any way that the South African Police members are all as I suggest, we in NZ have in fact been employing many who do a fine job. Though it does appear that standards are slipping over there and more importantly the coverups seem to be the norm.

Okay, I admit it: I’m having a very bad week and examples like this just make my blood boil a few degrees higher than normal.

Lack of evidence ???

Seems in South Africa these days if you know the right people, and can afford the bribe, you can get away with just about anything.

Taxi road rage video a YouTube hit2012-03-08 10:02

Bloemfontein - CCTV footage of a Bloemfontein minibus taxi driver driving into and then cruelly assaulting a pedestrian in a road rage incident in Andries Pretorius Street has attracted international attention after going viral on the internet.

Minibus taxi driver Aggrey Mojanaga, 43, appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on a charge of assault on Monday, but the charge was provisionally withdrawn by the Free State director of public prosecutions due to a lack of evidence. The case may be reopened.

Volksblad has meanwhile removed the footage from YouTube at the request of Stanley Reizis, owner of the Brent Oil fuel station whose security cameras recorded the incident last week.

Reizis, a well-known businessman and developer, received calls from as far as Greece about the incident, and insists that the road rage attack had nothing to do with his fuel station. It took place in the road in which his business is situated, and the name of his business can be seen in the video.

Widely discussed

A Canadian, however, made a copy of the original video uploaded by Volksblad and posted it under the title "Brutal Road Rage Caught on CCTV in South Africa" on the video sharing site.

By Thursday morning, nearly 90 000 people had already viewed the video on YouTube.

The video has been posted on several national and international websites and has been discussed widely on radio stations, television and social media sites such as Twitter.

The American website Guyism also put the video in their humour section, saying that hopefully South Africa has anger management classes. Even Japanese and Dutch sites spread the video footage.

There has also been widespread outrage at the witnesses, who stood watching and failed to intervene in the incident. The victim was reportedly hospitalised, but has been discharged.

Police said the investigation into the driver of the taxi with the registration number DHK506FS would continue.

Your implication would seem to be that the Van der Vyver family bribed Fred's way out of having committed murder. If I recall correctly, the family spent roughly 17,000,000 Rand defending Fred in court. In that setting, only one person could have accepted a bribe to return a verdict of "Not Guilty." Is it your accusation that Judge Deon van Zyl accepted a bribe?

If bribery were the Van der Vyver's game, would it not have been a great deal easier and cheaper to have merely bribed the police from the outset? After all, they did develop another suspect who they could have pinned the murder on, one Werner Carolus, who actually confessed to the murder on videotape. Instead of wasting millions on defending Fred, why not spend a fraction of that to ensure that Carolus took the fall?

Let us recount the evidence against Fred. There were three basic pieces of evidence: First, a latent fingerprint allegedly lifted from a DVD case, which was proven to have been fabricated from a drinking glass. Second, a bloody shoe impression that supposedly matched Fred's shoe, but which turned out not to be a shoe impression at all. And third, an ornamental hammer supposedly used as the murder weapon, which bent on the very first test blow to a pig's skull, proving that it could not have inflicted the fatal wounds and remained unbent during the murder.

Then there was Fred's alibi, the fact that he was in a meeting all afternoon. Of course, there was a two hour gap, which would have given him time to have sped like a bat out of hell from Cape Town to Stellenbosch, committed the murder, cleaned himself up and put on fresh clothes, then sped like a bat out of hell all the way back to Cape Town. It might have worked, but he would have had something like twenty minutes to commit a brutal, bloody murder and clean himself up and change clothes. The problem was that all exits to his office building were videotaped uninterrupted on CCTV cameras and he never left the building at any time during that afternoon.

Suspicion focused on Fred for one reason. When a woman is murdered, the first suspect is generally a husband or boyfriend. The problem is that there was no evidence against Fred, but plenty of evidence to his innocence. So the police did a phenomenally sloppy job of fabricating the evidence and, as "pottoman" so aptly points out, they shot themselves in the foot. They failed not only the firearms proficiency test this year, but the basic crime scene and criminal investigation proficiency test in 2005.

I suspect that somebody out there knows who the real murderer is. Perhaps if a little attention were focused on finding such a person and identifying the killer instead of maintaining the ridiculous position that Fred is guilty and bribed his way out of murder, some progress could be made in the case.

The views presented in this post are those of the author only. They do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or any of its components.

Today, seven years ago, Inge Lotz was still alive... and seven years ago, tonight would have been her last night alive. Someone decided seven years ago that on the 16th of March, she needed to die. And he killed her in the most brutal way imaginable. And to date, he got away with it.

No Pat Wertheim – I did not, and will not imply that the Van der Vyver family bribed Fred's way out of having committed murder. Pat, I realy do not understand how you were in any way able to come to that conclusion from my remarks to pottoman, or any other previous remarks, and I will not entertain any subsequent allegations in any of my responses / replies. I just remarked on pottoman’s comments from quotes from the first and third world.

I do agree with you Pat: “I suspect that somebody out there knows who the real murderer is”.

Let us on this day spare a thought to Jan and Juanita Lotz, the family and friends – who have no one to thank – who have been forsaken by the SAP, prosecution, society and also friends.

And let us also consider on how we are able to prevent a similar occurrence.